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Is Doctor Foster (BBC One) an overheated guilty pleasure or authentic chronicling of how the borders of reality can bend and warp when life crashes in around you? Three episodes into the sweltering drama’s second season, the case can still be made both ways as full-throttle histrionics are invariably followed by scenes of genuine emotional resonance.

The bonkers stuff this time involved the very much estranged former husband and wife, Gemma (the healthcare professional of the title) and Simon (the most evil man to ever walk the Earth). They were having one of those "for old times" trysts bitterly sundered ex-couples invariably get around to on television. This being a terrestrial channel with a high-profile cast, the assignation featured heavy breathing and flashes of flesh but no actual nudity. In other words, nothing here to make Game of Thrones fear for its sexposition crown.

Suranne Jones as GemmaCredit:
BBC

The love scene started as a trap sprung by Gemma (a grippingly flustered Suranne Jones) on Simon (Bertie Carvel, relishing the villainy). She planned to unmask her ex as lecherous creep, thus destroying the new life he had built with his oblivious fiancé (Jodie Comer). But the cunning scheme was rumbled when Simon spotted the whacking huge phone she’d propped against the bread-bin. They were in the kitchen, about to get busy 9½ Weeks style. Still, they’d started, so why not finish?

Bertie Carvel as SimonCredit:
BBC

Alas, in their haste to disrobe they’d forgotten troubled 15-year-old son Tom (Tom Taylor) was in the vicinity. He was in hot water at school for punching a pal. Hearing his warring parents hard at it in living room – they’d abandoned the kitchen, presumably on health-and-safety grounds – was obviously the last thing he needed.

Tom’s woes provided the instalment with its emotional core and kept full, nostril-flaring silliness at bay. The school-yard fight had followed the sexual assault he’d perpetuated against a female friend at a party. Oblivious, Gemma confronted the victim on the high street and was horrified to discover the truth – and just as disgusted to learn Simon had been in on the dark secret all along.

Amid the melodrama, writer Mike Bartlett has a serious point to make about how the irresponsibility of adults can dangerously unmoor their children. Yet there was a strange reversal at the end as Simon, having worked so hard to bring Tom under his influence, then rejected his son.

Angry at himself and at the world, Tom declared he needed to get as far from sleepy Parminster as possible. After surveying the smoking crater that was her life, Gemma took flight with him – though not before serving as bridesmaid at a friend’s wedding (ironic!) and texting Simon words to the effect that victory was his. Game, set and match Satanic Simon? Don’t count on it. With two episodes left, this enjoyably daft affair surely has a few loopy surprises left.